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00:00 We now have an incredibly stirring film for you from Apple Original Films.
00:07 It is Stephen Curry Underrated, directed and produced by Peter Nix.
00:12 And Peter joins us now.
00:14 Thank you so much for being with us.
00:15 Hey, Matt.
00:16 Thanks for having me.
00:18 This is the amazing story of Steph Curry, who is the all-time leader in three-point
00:25 goals made in the NBA, for those who don't know.
00:29 And a four-time NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors.
00:33 It's about how he overcame incredible odds to achieve all of that.
00:38 He really was never supposed to make it at the college level, let alone the pros.
00:43 So before we get into some questions, let's take a look at a clip from your film.
00:49 And this rolls back to Steph's early days when he was a kid and really gives us a sense
00:54 of what he had to overcome to become such a success.
01:04 When I was nine years old, I played on the 10 and under AAU team, the Charlotte Stars.
01:12 I remember looking around like, "Oh, I'm not as tall as him.
01:14 I'm not as strong as him."
01:17 I was the undersized scrawny kid that was just trying to figure out how to make it at
01:20 whatever level I was playing.
01:27 That was when I first really understood I'm different.
01:33 And the temptation for me at that time was to think about what I couldn't do.
01:38 But I knew I could shoot.
01:41 That was part of what I brought to the team.
01:45 Now, if we'd continued with that clip just a few more seconds, we would have heard Sonia
02:04 Curry say, "It's Steph's mom.
02:06 He's 15 and he hasn't reached puberty yet."
02:09 It must have been a little bit embarrassing for Steph to hear that throwback clip.
02:15 Probably.
02:16 Moms always say embarrassing things.
02:19 That is true.
02:20 We can count on them for that.
02:24 You start the film with Reggie Miller, who was the previous three-point record holder
02:30 in the NBA, sharing the scouting report for Steph Curry.
02:35 This is a senior, I guess, in college.
02:39 And the pros are looking him over and they're not liking what they see or not too high on
02:45 him.
02:46 What did they have to say about the young Steph Curry?
02:48 That was one of the things that we discovered a lot of things when we were investigating
02:54 in the beginning this notion of how...
02:57 Because the title from the beginning was underrated and it's part of his brand identity for myself.
03:02 I think you know my background as a hardcore cinema verite documentarian.
03:09 So we really pushed against that actually initially.
03:14 How are we going to position Steph Curry, who at the time we began making the movie,
03:21 won three NBA championships and all that.
03:24 And as we dug into it, we discovered a couple of things.
03:28 We discovered that scouting report, which basically did not see his potential.
03:33 And we also discovered his inner mentality, which is very much a belief that he was, is,
03:42 and always will be underrated, despite everything that he's achieved.
03:47 So we really wanted to try to unpack that for the audience.
03:51 Not to necessarily prove the point for him, but to really try to explore what really was
03:58 and why I was attracted to it was an origin story that I hadn't seen before.
04:04 Yeah, so he becomes a good player in high school.
04:10 He's not big.
04:11 He was a great player.
04:14 He was a great player statistically.
04:16 He was breaking all kinds of records and really achieved tremendous things on the basketball
04:24 court as a high school player, which was so much more surprising why he wasn't recruited
04:31 more heavily.
04:32 Yeah, and the whole story of how he wasn't recruited and then somehow he hooks up with
04:38 Davidson College in North Carolina and develops this really special relationship with the
04:44 coach, Bill McKillop.
04:46 And I'm sorry, Bob.
04:50 And I mean, that's the relationship that continues today.
04:53 It really says something about Steph that there's these very strong relationships that
04:59 he forms and he doesn't forget about these people.
05:02 Yeah, that was something that we had to make decisions about who to include in the film.
05:07 And with all these celebrity documentaries now, there's a lot of temptation to sort of
05:15 stock these films with ex-presidents and other superstars and other celebrities, sort of
05:23 waxing poetic about the greatness of the subject.
05:27 And there was some discussion of that, but what we realized is that we wanted everything
05:36 to be organic and tied to his story.
05:38 And so Reggie worked because not just because Steph broke his record, but he was there calling
05:44 the game, videotaping as a super fan himself, Steph in there.
05:52 And so that was an important piece.
05:55 And the more we learned about Bob McKillop, the more we understood that he was going to
06:00 be a really strong supporting character in the movie, because the reason why he saw in
06:06 Steph the potential that nobody else saw is because he was that kid.
06:09 He's this kid from New York and we kind of researched his story.
06:12 And we were tempted to do like a whole other film, like a two-hander, like with Bob and
06:16 Steph, because his story is so interesting.
06:20 But he was an undersized college high school athlete who nobody kind of really paid much
06:26 attention to.
06:27 And so when he sort of obviously ultimately became a coach, when he saw Steph, he saw
06:35 a little bit of himself.
06:36 And I think that's why he saw his potential where so many people did not.
06:41 I kind of fell in love with the family.
06:44 I suspect I'm not alone with that.
06:46 I mean, not only Steph and his family now, but his parents, Sonia and Del Curry.
06:52 And for those who follow the NBA, they know Del Curry was a pro player, very good pro
06:57 player.
06:58 Clearly, that is so important to him, the values that they instilled in him and the
07:04 support that they gave him.
07:07 I mean, one of the first times I really began to notice or really lean into Steph was that
07:15 first championship.
07:16 I mean, obviously, I knew about him before that, but he brought Riley up in the press
07:21 conference and it went viral.
07:22 His daughter was really young at the time.
07:25 And it was the first time, it was one of, and that led to athletes doing that more.
07:33 Athletes generally didn't do that prior to that.
07:36 Maybe it had happened, but not as much frequency as it now does.
07:40 And Steph sort of blending and sort of connecting his professional world with his family life
07:45 was really compelling for people.
07:47 And that's something that we wanted to try to do in the movie.
07:53 There was so much more there, but we met, we heard about his grandma, Candy, and we
07:58 heard about his cousins and his extended family.
08:00 And then obviously, Del and Sonia have been a very present, they've been very present
08:07 in both his college and his professional career.
08:11 It was a little frustrating because that was another piece that kind of made the argument
08:19 of being underrated because he was not only was, he had tremendous high school player,
08:23 but he was the son of an NBA superstar.
08:25 So it's like, you'd think somebody, because Del was a star.
08:30 He was one of the greatest, he's one of the greatest shooters of all time.
08:32 You'd think somebody would have given him a scholarship just on that, just say, "Oh
08:38 yeah, he's Del's son.
08:39 Come on."
08:40 But even that wasn't enough to get him over the hump of the big, the North Carolinians,
08:45 the Dukes, the Kansas, the Kentucky, the Georgetown, even Virginia Tech, which is where both of
08:53 his parents were notable athletes.
08:57 So we knew we wanted to sort of try to understand the role that they played in not just validating
09:03 him and being parents, but just in very specific ways how Del helped him change that shot,
09:10 which is really, you could argue that Del Curry is the one who changed the NBA because
09:15 he was the one that taught Steph to get that release up higher.
09:20 And because he was undersized, that was the only way he was going to get off the shot.
09:25 - Yeah, as we see, he's kind of as a kid, he's shooting from the waist, which is understandable.
09:32 When you're that far away from the basket, it's pretty hard to launch it that far, but
09:37 that's not gonna work in the college game, let alone the pros.
09:41 So that's a really interesting element of it right there.
09:46 What is it like for you?
09:47 You live in Oakland and you've made a trilogy of films about Oakland.
09:52 Of course, the Golden State Warriors are based there.
09:55 What's it like to see them play live in person?
09:58 - Yeah, they used to be based there.
10:00 We've lost them.
10:01 They're now in San Francisco.
10:02 - Oh, that's right.
10:03 That's right.
10:04 - We just lost the A's too.
10:05 So now we have, we've lost all of our teams, but that's a whole nother story.
10:10 We'll make another film about that, Matt, and we'll do another.
10:13 But no, I mean, I care deeply about the Bay Area.
10:16 I've lived here longer than anywhere in my life.
10:18 I'm from Boston, but I came out here in '97 and never left.
10:24 And felt that the Bay Area was a tremendous stage for storytelling.
10:28 It's such a diverse city.
10:32 So much going on, so much promise, so many challenges.
10:35 And Steph himself is a bit of a Bay Area institution.
10:38 And so that's why I kind of felt, even though this was a celebrity, whatever, celebrity
10:43 documentary, it felt like it fit into my body of work because it wasn't just about a celebrity
10:51 athlete.
10:52 It was also about a story about family.
10:53 It was a story about community.
10:54 It was a story about mentorship.
10:55 And those are all sort of themes that are sort of woven through, particularly community
11:00 and family that are deeply woven through not just my work, but also my partner, Ryan Coogler's
11:04 work.
11:05 - Yes, I was gonna ask you about Ryan Coogler, of course, the director of the Black Panther
11:11 movies, the Creed movies, or some of the Creed movies.
11:15 Now Michael B. Jordan's kind of taken over those.
11:17 - He's taken over.
11:18 - And starred.
11:20 You've got a company with Ryan Coogler, Proximity Media.
11:25 What did he bring to the table?
11:26 I mean, this is one of the great talents of Hollywood, of course.
11:30 - I mean, right off the bat, he brought Steph.
11:34 He attracted Steph.
11:35 Steph is a huge fan.
11:37 I think Steph might've heard of some of my films, but he didn't know me per se, but he
11:44 knew Ryan and him and Ryan had developed a relationship.
11:46 Ryan was a huge Warriors fan.
11:49 And so when he decided it was time that he wanted to tell this piece of the story, he
11:53 approached Ryan.
11:54 And initially for Ryan to direct, but Ryan was very busy directing Wakanda forever.
12:02 And he said, "But even if I wasn't busy, I would tell you, you need to talk to Pete because
12:07 this is what he does, and you would be in the best hands."
12:11 So to Ryan's credit, he introduced me to Steph and we hit it off and we decided that it was
12:19 a good pairing.
12:20 And the rest is history.
12:23 - Yeah, it's a beautifully made film, premiered at Sundance and Steph, despite being in the
12:30 middle of his season, was able to make it there.
12:34 He had a home game and hopped on a plane and wound up in Park City, Utah, which was very
12:41 cool.
12:42 You were at the Eccles Theater, the big venue there.
12:46 Really what I think is so wonderful about the film is it's a story for everyone in the
12:51 sense that who among us has not been doubted or discounted or felt that they were at some
12:57 point in your life.
12:58 And so in that sense, what inspires you most about Steph Curry and all he's accomplished
13:05 when there were so many naysayers?
13:08 - I mean, there's the cliche thing, which is rising above the doubts that people have
13:17 in you, the chip on your shoulder.
13:19 And that's definitely a lesson or it's a moral that I think young people have felt.
13:28 When you hear young people talk about the film or when you're at Q&As, you can see the
13:33 impact that it has because kids especially are so vulnerable to so many different things,
13:40 whether it's bullying or their parents' expectations or not, or sort of how society sees them,
13:49 particularly kids of color in America.
13:53 We think there's gonna be a big impact there.
13:55 But the other thing that really struck me as we were making the film was the power of
14:03 community and mentorship and Davidson represented both of those things.
14:08 Davidson was a community that itself was almost like a doppelganger for Steph, like this little
14:15 college near Charlotte that nobody had ever heard of, yet they took great pride in their
14:20 academic programs and their athletic programs, but nobody's ever talking about Davidson.
14:25 So I think that Steph allowed them to be seen for the first time, which was incredibly powerful
14:32 for the community of Davidson.
14:33 And in return, they gave him back all of their love.
14:38 And within that community was this coach, Bob McKillop, who provided just remarkable
14:46 mentorship.
14:47 And I've never, I don't know what the equivalent of it was, but that first game he played against
14:52 Eastern Michigan where he turned the ball over 13, 14 times, the coach turned right
15:00 around and the next game against Michigan, one of the great teams in college basketball
15:06 started him and had that confidence in him.
15:10 And I don't think that that would have happened at a Duke or a North Carolina or Georgetown.
15:13 So that belief that McKillop showed in Steph, truly seeing him is sort of a lesson that
15:23 I hope resonates with audiences that don't discount the power of your mentorship.
15:30 So with young kids, we hope they can be inspired to rise above their self-doubts or doubts
15:36 of others.
15:37 But with all the adults out there, don't forget your mentorship can be very powerful, make
15:42 a huge impact.
15:43 And so that's something that we really feel like the film says.
15:48 - It is super inspiring for those reasons that you just pointed out and so many others.
15:53 The film is Stephen Curry Underrated from Apple Original Films.
15:58 And we have been joined by producer, director, Peter Nix.
16:02 Thank you so much for being with us.
16:03 - Thanks, Matt.
16:04 Thanks for having me.
16:05 - Thank you.
16:06 - Thank you.
16:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]